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Caffeine Clean: Four months without coffee

By Melissa Urban, who doesn’t do “moderation” very well at all

Just over four months ago, I gave up caffeine for good. It wasn’t the first time I’d done without – periodically through the last two years, usually when our coffee habits had quietly and sneakily grown past the point of healthy, we’d do a week or two of no caffeine, and then reset our consumption to a more reasonable level. I’d get to the 14 day mark, figure I was as good as cleansed and then happily make my first cup of coffee, promising myself that I’d go back to consuming “in moderation”. In under a month, however, my consumption was usually right back to where I left off. I’d make every excuse in the book for my 3-4 cups a day – I needed a boost while traveling, a small coffee mid-workshop made the day a little easier, coffee pre-workout was an ergogenic aid. I knew I was kidding myself – and my adrenals knew it too. (News flash: the folks who counsel you on nutrition and health are human, too.)

The last time we gave up coffee for a few weeks was in August 2010, as we were moving from New England to Salt Lake City. I went my usual two weeks without, but when I went back to my beloved Misha’s Route 66, something was different.

Sometimes, awareness sucks

As many of you have experienced with our Whole30 program, the more “cycles” you complete of (a) going without a particular food, and (b) reintroducing it, the more acutely aware you are of the effect that food is having on you. It was the same with my periodic coffee cleanses. Each time I went back to drinking coffee, I noticed just a little bit more how it was negatively affecting my mood, my sleep, my energy levels – even on just one or two cups a day. In August, however, the caffeine straight-up kicked me in the crotch with its nasty effects. These are the things I noticed after only two weeks away, and returning back to just two small cups of coffee a day:

Caffeine gives me crazypants. Literally. I get anxious. It makes me irritable. I pick fights, I snap at people, my fuse is abnormally short. In general, I’m an unpleasant person to be around sometime around cup one-and-a-half. Sorry, Dallas.

I become maniacal about my work. I would mindlessly, slowly sip my two cups while typing up blog posts or responding to emails and find myself in this unhealthy place where I’d refuse to break for the gym, to answer a personal phone call or even to pee (for real) because I was firmly entrenched in “work mode”.

I didn’t eat a full meal until noon. Ever. Caffeine is a powerful appetite suppressant, and despite our rule to eat before our first cup of coffee, I just wasn’t hungry. Though I’d force myself to eat something, two hard-boiled eggs was hardly enough to see me through until lunch.

Stating the obvious

Dallas was the first to say the idea out loud – carefully, mind you. “Maybe you should, um, I don’t know, it’s just an idea, but maybe you should just… give up coffee?” I’d been thinking the very same thing for quite some time, to be honest – at that point, it was easy to see the caffeine wasn’t doing me any favors. I just wasn’t sure I was ready to pull the trigger. It’s a daunting proposition, to give up coffee forever. But on October 24th, surrounded by witnesses, I swore off caffeine… again.

This time, however, was different. While I still went through the same withdrawal symptoms –headaches, lethargy, crankiness – the mental cravings disappeared virtually immediately. The difference this time was that I was giving it up for good. There was no 30 day period, no end point in sight, no “I’ll give myself a longer break and see how it goes.” I decided right then and there that, given the way caffeine affected me, there was no reason for me to keep it in my life. And the finality of that made everything so much easier. (I’ve never been good at moderation, anyway.)

Emerging from my caffeine coma

It took a full month before things (sleep, energy, my over-worked adrenals) started to come back around – that quick fix I was hoping for was nowhere to be found, in fact. Things actually got worse before they got better, which I wasn’t expecting. And even four months later, I’m still noticing slow and gradual improvements in areas I never expected. Sure, I was aware of the mood swings, the irritability, the lack of appetite. What I hadn’t noticed was how caffeine was affecting other areas of my life – until, of course, I gave it up. (And Whole30 principles come around again, right?) These are the things I’ve noticed in the last four months of “caffeine-free”:

After a full month, I was sleeping so much better. This was a tough battle – the first month, my system was all kinds of confused, and my sleep patterns were all over the charts. I had trouble falling asleep at first, and then I’d fall asleep okay but wake up at 1 AM, 2 AM, 3 AM as my hormonal balance continued to shift. After a solid month without caffeine, I started to fall asleep easy, sleep straight through the night and wake up refreshed without an alarm. (I thought I was doing this already. Comparatively, my sleep quality sucked compared to where it is now.)

After two months, I started to wake up hungry. Not ravenous, but genuinely, normally, happily hungry. Good lord, I haven’t woken up hungry since 1994. This is an amazing phenomenon in which my body is actually sending me valid signals (hunger) when it’s actually supposed to (after fasting overnight). Amazing… but only after only eight full weeks of being caffeine-free. (Interestingly, feeding yourself a healthy meal within an hour of waking is very helpful in recovering from adrenal fatigue – certainly, waking up hungry makes that a whole lot easier.)

After three months, my emotional volatility in a certain one week period each month has greatly dissipated. This is the most surprising change – I had no idea my caffeine consumption was connected to such a serious case of “hormone poisoning” during that week. Makes sense in hindsight, but I’m grateful that I no longer ride the hormonal roller coaster every 28 days. (I’m not the only one happy about that.)

After four months, I noticed my general awareness of stress – and its negative effects – has dramatically improved. For those who know me well, I’ve always thrived on being in a constant state of stress. Work, training, day-to-day activities were all conducted at a maniacal pace, not because they had to be. I just thought I liked it that way. Now, after several months of sleeping well, eating more, and generally allowing my adrenals to recover, I can feel that stress-state creeping on… and I no longer like it. Now, it just feels, well… stressed. (Because in most day-to-day life situations – say it with me – “Stress is bad, m’kay?”) While I’m not great at nipping it the bud every time it pops up, and it’s usually work stuff that sets me off the fastest, I’m much better at recognizing it early and taking measures to ensure my periods of stress are less frequent, and shorter in duration. Progress. And you’re welcome, adrenals.

The road to recovery

I’m hopeful that things will continue to progress and improvements will continue to appear over the next few months – I fully expect it will take at least a year to reap the full physical and mental benefits of a caffeine-free lifestyle. I’ve decided not to mess around with a good thing, and will avoid all caffeinated products for the time being. Turns out I don’t miss black coffee enough to justify a decaf, and I’ve been told by a few smart people that even decaffeinated beverages are too much for the extra-sensitive.

Now, if you think this entire post is just propaganda on the evils of coffee, think again (and re-read our Coffee Manifesto). We’re not trying to tell you what to do – coffee isn’t all good, nor is it all evil. But if you’ve noticed, as I did, that your caffeine consumption takes more than it gives, maybe it’s time to take a good, hard look at your habit, too. The rewards may surprise you.

We can help you live the Whole9 life.

Comments

Thank you! What an inspirational story! I am weaning off caffeine from 150 mg to 0-25mg per day at a rate of 25mg less per week. I noticed that I started to drink a lot more water and I could almost feel my kidneys thank me!

I’ve been caffeine-free for 8 days now and coffee-free for two or three days more. On the first night I was off coffee, I had amazingly deep sleep that included the most vivid dreaming that I can remember in some time. During the daytime, I feel much more relaxed, I’m more able to keep still, and my general judgment has improved dramatically- I’m better able to think about the “big picture” and make daily decisions.

I had headaches for the first four days or so, even when I was weaning myself off coffee via tea and chocolate. I was able to take care of these with two or three maximum dosages of aspirin per day. At present, I still feel tired during the day, but it’s not the sort of tiredness that demands I take a nap; it’s more like a warm blanket that smothers any nervousness I might have.

The decreased anxiety, less “jerky” body movements, better sense of my life’s priorities, and improved sleep that I’ve experienced have made the effort and pain worth it.

Wow. Coffee…has been a part of my life for so long, at least two decades. I remember how bad it tasted when I started mimicking my Mom who drank a lot of it. I was in high school. But I kept drinking it for the caffeine and suddenly found myself head over heals in love-with coffee. Fast forward to the not so distant past. My stress level has been off the charts these past few years. I feel like I’ve tried everything, but nothing seemed to help. Then a few weeks ago I decided not to make coffee in the morning. I’ve had one cup of coffee in the past two weeks and I can’t believe how much better I feel. My stress is reduced, I am more in tune with how I feel at work and at home and I can relate to others in a way I never thought possible. Don’t get me wrong, I miss coffee-a lot. But now that I’ve put some distance between us I feel like that I had been living just to drink coffee. I see now how drinking coffee was the source of so much the discomfort I have felt over the years. I don’t know if I will give it up for good, I just know that I can’t let coffee rule me the way I have. Thanks for the excellent blog post. You’re right on the money.

Thank you for posting this! I started realizing the last couple weeks that I was drinking a lot of coffee, especially in the afternoon to continue to function. I never feel/felt fully awake. The worst part is I don’t even really like the taste of coffee. So yesterday I decided to give it up for a while. Who knows? I may give it up forever too. Thankfully I had yesterday off, I slept most of the day and slept 12 hours last night. I still fill a little tired today, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I even made a cup of coffee (just in case) and decided not to drink it. Looking forward to the positive effects on my mood and brain.

Have always loved the focus coffee can give me, but realized how adctive it was when I had to give it up in basic training when I joined the army (not enough time to drink with the busy schedule). A dr gave me a medical”profile” that allowed me to get up an hour early and make & consume a few cups before “wake-up” as a remedy for constipation. That improved my regularity immediately!

Years later, after trying to get pregnant and giving up, for no real reason, I decided to only put healthy food in my body. I got pregnant in 4 months & and had a healthy son. Started drinking again as soon as I finished nursing.

Not having made the connection, and again trying for child #2.for 5 years…and giving up, I gave up coffee because it was ruling me and I didn’t like it…and, glory be, I got pregnant again!
It was while I was pregnant that I heard a documenterary on the radio that associated caffein and sensitive people with spontaneous miscarriage that I made the connection. My only 2 pregnancy a in 11years happened when I was “clean”.

Mind you, I don’t advocate coffee as a form of birth control, but if you are trying to make babies, it’s worth eleminating.

OMG thank you for posting. I have been caffeine free for 2 weeks and 2 days and yes still counting. I am aiming to be caffeine free for life (!) bc I am also an extremist and feel like it gets out of control easily. I am glad you admit to feeling the effects after a month because everything I read says you will feel great after 3 days….. not in my case!!! I am a tea drinker and feel like it gives me a smooth energy and sharpness that whereas coffee always made me jittery and crazy so never drank that. But I miss my tea!!! I feel vey dull mentally and tired a lot. I feel like I am eating more in general to keep myself going and veering towards chocolate which makes sense but I feel like I will gain weight this way and am not getting things I need to accomplished. Any helpful advice is appreciated!!!

Such a cool post. You made me hopeful. I went cold turkey on coffee two days ago. Today is my third day coffee free. I basically spent the last two days in bed with a severe head ache. I took a week off everything to end this addiction. This is the third day and my headache is less severe. Reading your post gave me a 2nd wind. Im following up with this.

AWS, glad to hear it. The worst of the withdrawal effects should be over by the fourth day, so I hope you were able to make it over the hump! Remember, though, for me it took about six months to experience all the benefits of being caffeine-free (and reducing stress at the same time). Sleep was slow to come around, but hang in there! Melissa

A way to quit coffee (caffeine) without withdrawl is to take DLPA supplements. DLPA is used in the brain to produce norepinephrine and dopamine, which are two neurotransmitters that caffeine depletes. Do a search for “DLPA and coffee addiction” for further information. This will also allow you to quit without headaches – again no withdrawal. DLPA can be found in your local health food store or can be ordered online.

I am so glad to hear your story ! I am now on day 25 of being caffeine free. My daily habit was 2- 3 cups of coffee through the day while drinking about 4 tall glasses of iced black tea in between the coffees. I was beginning to feel extremely stressed out all the time and not my self about 6 months ago.. I beleive a combo of lifes stresses and exc essive long term caffeine consumption brought on some anxiety/stress symptoms. I am still having some rough moody days, but overall I think I am sleeping better and I am able to relax sometimes now… When I was drinking caffeine , I found it nearly impossible to sit and relax.. It felt like I was unable to feel any pleasure from life.. For me I think caffeine is fine when life stress is minimal.. but I think it overwhelms my system when life is hectic.. This time I plan on keeping it minimal in my life.. Something I was surprised about is that for the first 3 weeks of cutting caffeine, I would go to bed at 10PM and wake up at 2 or 3 AM everynight. And would be wide awake and unable to fall asleep.. Which was scary for me. I have always been a deep sleeper..
Good artice.. Thank you.

Mandaj…
Like you.. I feel very dull and slow mentally sometimes even after 25 days.. I feel like if I had to take a test on something I would fail miserably.. .. Also, don’t forget that there is caffeine in chocolate.. Thats probably why your craving it…

Hi, I am 19 and I have been drinking coffee for 9 years here is how I am currently quitting coffee. In the morning I make one drink with caffeine, I put in about 1/4 teaspoon of regular coffee into m k-cup maker, make a small cup and then I Put decaf instant coffee in it and add hot water from a kettle to fill the cup. It tastes better than the regular coffee I used to drink and it contains about 10% amount of caffeine I used to consume in the morning.

I have been doing with for about a week and a half, and noticed that doing this made it so I didn’t experience very strong headaches AT ALL. During the day occassionally I would start to feel this pressure inside my head that I couldn’t really call a headache because compared to the headache I got from quitting caffeine cold turkey months prior it was completely manageable. However I am going to continue this for a few more weeks until I am completely used to drinking only a small amount of coffee (as I gradually decrease the amount every few days as well, ie from 1 tsp to 1/2 etc).

The main other adjustments to not having a lot of caffeine so far are that I feel tired sometimes throughout the day, but I don’t feel like actually sleeping. Just low on energy tired. Also I night got really tired around 8:30 pm. Aside from that my body has had some aches and pains as well, in the morning I wake up feeling weird. Weird in the sense that I’m tired and would rather lie down in bed and sleep, but the fact is I slept the same amount I would have any other day and not be tired. I think my body just knows it’s gotten enough sleep so I can’t fall asleep easily but I just get up anyway

What a great article. I drink far too much coffee. I have become so addicted to it that I am trying to not drink it today but all I can think about is where my next cup is coming from. Its amazing how hard caffiene grabs you, I feel like a crack addict looking for his next hit. I am determined not to let it get the better of me and I know the longer I go the easier it will get.

Thanks for this post, it was great to read, I Had been addicted to coca cola for 16 years and coffee and quit both cold turkey about 3 weeks ago and the the first nine days I had terrible headache and could hardly function, totally fatigued and exhausted but once the withdrawel stage had finished I am waking up early when usually I would wake up late, my mind feels clearer and calmer, I w ill never drink caffeine again.

Hi guys, i found this after searching about being tired after giving up caffeine. I switched to rooibos about 3 weeks ago and also gave up soda but feel massively tired almost all day. Just a thought for those previous tea drinkers – have you tried rooibos? It’s lovely an naturally caffeine free. Cheers, roy

I stopped drinking coffee about a week ago because it was making my anxiety terribly worse. It seemed to intensify my stress response. I would be sitting at my desk thinking about a current situation that is bothering me in my life and my heart would be pounding. Then the stress seemed to reach my upper back and make it unbearable to be in any position except lying face up on the floor. Obviously I can’t do that at work so I had use another solution. I found, by Googling, that the back pain was caused by stress, and that the high-caffeine from coffee was intensifying the stress. So naturally, I stopped drinking coffee. I immediately had positive results. The stress is less intense and allows me to function more normally. I thought it would be hard to break that routine of drinking a cup of joe every morning but it turned out to be pretty easy. The thing I’m having trouble with right now is not being as awake and alert in the early morning. My alertness builds more gradually now. I think the solution might be to wake up earlier so I’m more ramped up by the time I get to work. I’m really glad to not have the intense mania and the down cycles anymore. I feel like I have more control over my emotional response now.

I’m 1 1/2 months into my mission to give up caffeine and I have slipped a few times. It’s been really hard. The first week was the worst. I felt like I was having bad PMS all week. By the second week I started feeling awake in the mornings and had this positive feeling that I never thought I could have without a fix of caffeine. Then when I got my first period after that, I miraculously had no PMS! It was like a little miracle.

The most interesting thing about giving up coffee is the fact that I finally realized how much I hate my job. Every day I would rely on caffeine to give me a happy boost and allow me to be “on” while at work. I work in a job where dealing with people is one of the main things I do and I don’t know how I got here because I don’t really like dealing with people that much. Not having coffee has really woken me up to the fact that the only way I got through this job before was with a powerful drug called coffee!

Now I’m seeing the world in a whole new light and I wonder how many people use this drug to just get through life! It makes me think of how the Nazis gave their soldiers uppers (some sort of cocaine like drug) to be better soldiers. I feel like America needs caffeine just so we can be good Americans, soldiering through crappy jobs where we have to act happy and extroverted all the freaking time, while working 60 hours a week and then after work for networking events and then at home where we have to prepare dinner for our families and do it all over again the next day. It makes me think that this isn’t the way we were meant to be. That we were meant to live a slower existence and actually rest when we’re tired. When I tell people I gave up coffee, they ask me how can I live like that? Well I’m currently looking for a new job because I’d rather be healthy and happy.

I started drinking coffee a few years back at a pretty young age (which I do not suggest to anyone). I’m not stopping caffeine cold turkey because after I attempted that, I felt super dizzy and out of sorts and just kind of blah. So I decided to tamper off of it a bit at a time and I still feel exhausted during the day because I’m drinking nowhere near the amount I used to. It’s been about two weeks and I still have the exhaustion symptom, but I believe it will start to improve the longer I go without my usual coffee.

i have been a long time coffee drinker. Especially Dunkin donuts coffee, but I noticed lately that it is keeping me up later and later and i’m having trouble sleeping right away like I used to. Well, this past Thursday I had a med. coffee at DD on an empty stomach as usual.. i’m never hungry in the morning. I went to the gym afterwards and worked out on the weight machines, I left the gym and did not hydrate with water at all! half way home I got light headed and my fingers started to feel like I had pins and needles… to the point where my hand closed shut and seized up, I could not open them, i got so scared i sent myself to the hospital, when i got there my whole body and legs, stomach cramped up and even my ear lobs had pins and needles… I don’t know if the caffeine affected me in such a bad way due to being dehydrated OR if the caffeine triggered a panic attack which I NEVER EVER had one… to days later, I had coffee again on an empty stomach and an hour later the same thing happened, very scary! I am NOT longer drinking coffee or caffeine, after all these years it finally it starting to bother me, thanks for your great story… hope i start feeling better real soon!

This time I am 6 weeks into a caffeine free life. I have had spells before without. Even 2 years without coffee – but using tea. Gradually I get back onto it. Starting off with one or two and then drinking coffee stronger and stronger. This time is different. I am off it for good. I am now 63 and regret that I have used coffee most of my working life to cope. Although actually I would have coped better without it.

The tension pain in my neck is much better and my tension headache have all but disappeared; this time I can imagine what it feels like to be drugged with caffeine and I don’t like it. I still get cravings thinking that I NEED a cup to feel better; there were times when I had a coffee as a ‘treat’ i.e. shopping, driving on a long journey – but so far so good I have not weakened. I certainly do not like not being able to sleep when I have gone back to coffee previously. With a friend we have jokingly set up a CafA (read as cafe) group (caffiene anonymous) as a support group!

Thank you for your article. It is another method of support to read such articles

Thanks to all of you for such amazingly informative comments. I started drinking coffee at age 42 and I am now 45. Never enjoying the taste, I started adding splenda, flavorings, etc, etc,. I am now experiencing stress times 100. On average everyone including myself is exposed to stress, but lately I noticed that it is extreme. I am dangerously addicted to Dunkin Donuts coffee. The franchise is getting richer and I am more and more addicted to this thing I feel I need once, twice, sometimes, three times daily,. Something is wrong here people. No food substance should make you feel withdrawal like coffee does. I’m convinced, its no longer for me and I will give it up,. Good luck to all of you,.